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Bridgegate won't end with Christie-backed report

Gov. Chris Christie did not know of his top aides' plan for a politically motivated traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge, according to lawyers hired by the Christie administration to investigate the "Bridgegate" scandal.

NEW YORK — An internal investigation released Thursday declared that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had no involvement in a politically motivated traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge last year. But the governor must still clear two probes from likely less-friendly investigators: the Democratic-controlled state Legislature and federal prosecutors.

Lawyers hired by the Christie administration to investigate the so-called "Bridgegate scandal" said Thursday their research shows the governor did not know of the scheme — as Christie has maintained since December.

"Our findings today are a vindication of Gov. Christie," lawyer Randy Mastro, who headed the investigation, said at a news conference Thursday.

The findings were met with deep skepticism by New Jersey Democrats who are investigating the scandal, in which lane closings on the bridge caused gridlock in Fort Lee, N.J., for four days last September.

"It reads more like a novel than a work of fact,'' said Assemblyman John Wisniewski, chairman of the legislative panel investigating the bridge lane closings. "It's very difficult to tell the truth when you don't hear from all sides.''

The internal review included interviews with Christie and his staff and examination of e-mails and cellphone records. But the investigators did not interview the three people at the center of the scandal: Christie aide Bridget Kelly, who wrote an e-mail saying, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee''; Bill Stepien, campaign manager for Christie's successful re-election last year; and David Wildstein, a Christie high school classmate hired by a Christie appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Port Authority controls the George Washington Bridge.

All three have cited their Fifth Amendment rights in refusing to answer questions from investigators.

The report acknowledged that Wildstein has said he told a Christie aide that he mentioned the traffic issue to the governor while it was going on. Christie told the investigators that he "did not recall" such a conversation, and the report did not delve further into that allegation.

Christie also told investigators he "did not recall" ever talking to Kelly about the bridge lane closings, Mastro said.

Christie, who received the report Wednesday, did not comment publicly but said in an interview with ABC News airing Thursday evening that the lane-closing scandal had been "the toughest time in my life professionally.''

The report found no evidence that Kelly and Wildstein caused the lane closings as retribution for the town's Democratic mayor refusing to endorse Christie's re-election.

"What motivated this act is not yet clear," Mastro said.

In the ABC interview, Christie said he is also mystified. "Sometimes people do inexplicably stupid things,'' he said. "As the guy in charge, none of it made any sense to me, and to some extent, still does not.''

Christie "did not know of the lane realignment beforehand and had no involvement in the decision to realign lanes,'' the report says. "Gov. Christie's account of these events rings true." When the incriminating e-mail from Kelly to Wildstein was made public in January, the report says, Christie expressed "shock" and was "welling up with tears.''

Federal prosecutors and a New Jersey legislative panel are conducting their own investigations of the lane closures. Wisniewski, the leader of the legislative investigation, called the report "incomplete."

"Lawyers hired by and paid by the Christie administration itself to investigate the governor's office who then say the governor and most of his office did nothing wrong will not be the final word on this matter,'' Wisniewski said. "The idea that Bridget Kelly and David Wildstein by themselves concocted the lane closure is, frankly, hard to believe."

The report says that only Kelly and Wildstein knew of the plan to close the bridge lanes. Stepien and Bill Baroni, deputy executive director of the Port Authority who has since resigned, also knew of the lane closing in advance but didn't know of any reason for the lane closing other than a fictional traffic study.

The report also called "demonstrably false" Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer's claim that the Christie administration tried to force her into approving a stalled real estate project in order to receive recovery funds for damage from Superstorm Sandy.

Wisniewski called into question the objectivity of Mastro's law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, saying it has done previous work for Christie's office and that one of the lawyers involved in the investigation is a friend of the governor. Mastro was a deputy to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has been a staunch defender of Christie's since the scandal broke.